Japan's Response to Yen's Decline: Officials Vow Action.

Japan's top currency diplomat, Masato Kanda, has described the yen's depreciation against the US dollar as "rapid and one-sided," with the US currency hitting a seven-month high in the 143 zone. Kanda has not ruled out the possibility of Japanese authorities stepping into the foreign exchange market, with the yen's decline reflecting the widening of the interest rate gap between Japan and the US. The yen has approached the psychologically important 145 mark, leaving some currency traders alert for possible verbal warnings by Japanese authorities and the possibility of a yen-buying, dollar-selling intervention to arrest the currency's decline.